Over the last few years my wife and I have had the great opportunity to do a bit of traveling. In 2002 we flew to Paris France (no, not Paris Idaho) and rented a car. We traveled all over France in a small VW Jetta for three weeks. Before we left, I suggested that we probably could get along with just taking a small carry-one bag each. The idea went over like a fart in church, but after some discussion and a few tales of people traveling half way across the planet and having to wear the same clothes until the luggage was finally found, my wife finally agreed. Yes it is entirely possible to travel with just a carry-on. You just have to be willing to spend a few hours in a self service laundry in a foreign country. My logic was validated when we met an American couple in Paris and shared a table with them at the Café du Marche. He was wearing one of his wife’s blouses because his luggage had been lost. In many places he would not have received a second look and I probably wouldn’t have noticed either if he hadn’t brought it up. If you look at it from a positive point of view, he beat the stereotype of the American tourist (Dockers, new white tennis shoes, t-shirt with some message like “I caught crabs on the Oregon coast” and a Chicago Cubs baseball hat).
Unfortunately, as we are packing today in preparation of our flight to Geneva Switzerland tomorrow I am trying to stuff 250 lbs of the essentials of life into four suitcases and a carry-on. Oh, did I mention the two laptops in a back pack and a violin? Larry’s Tire Store, Funeral Home and Airlines LCC, is limiting us to 50 lbs per bag. The first leg of the trip from Seattle to Salt Lake City had only two bags and both were over the weight limit. Since then my wife has been shopping and we have added two more suitcases. I am now way over the limit and will have to discard the chop saw and air compressor to accommodate her recent purchases. I have refused to give up my 5lb bag of Snickers. Larry, in his quest to squeeze the last dollar out of my wallet has told us that our first bag is free but the 2nd one will be $75. Other airlines charge $35/bag except for SouthWest and they don’t seem to care.
I let you know how it went when we get there.
Thanks for listening, I feel much better.
I'm already not looking forward to packing up when we leave--remembering what it was like to pack it all to get here. The last couple spent over 300 swiss francs shipping stuff home so they wouldn't have to deal with extra luggage. I plan on making a huge deposit in a clothing recycle container a few blocks away.
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